The Bloodbath in Jermuk Reaches Halftime

As I promised you, the entertaining games from Jermuk continued. The second round saw no draws at all. Nana Dzagnidze scored her second win. So did one of the Armenian hopes. She produced a nice game as she managed to exclude the opponent’s black squared bishop:

After the third round there were no more players on one hundred percent.

The fourth round was the most “peaceful” one so far as half of the games ended in a draw. Naturally, these draws saw a full-blooded fight. Mkrtchian and Kosintseva continued their theoretical dispute from Nalchik this year. This game is important for the Nimzo-Indian Defense:

Dzagnidze made use of that draw, and grabbed the lead after a clear win against Kovanova:

After two painful defeats Hou Yifan came back in the game after a lucky win against Stefanova:

There was another important theoretical novelty in the game of Kosintseva:

The sixth round was the last before the rest day, and all the players tried their best to improve their positions, and mood. All the white players succeeded, and another no-draw round became certain. The most important was the battle of the leaders:

Dzagnidze won again, and her score for the moment is excellent- 5.5/6, and a performance of 2873! She is followed by Mrktchian, who has 4.5 and Kosintseva with 4. Hou Yifan recovered fully from her poor start and is already on plus one, as is her compatriot Shen Yang.

The rest day let the ladies enjoy the beautiful nature that Jermuk offers, and the excellent hospitality of the Armenians. The mayor of the town organized a rich lunch for the participants and the trainers.

Today the tournament is resumed, and we can enjoy some more wonderful games from the ladies. Do not miss them!